It is not only unnecessary, but decidedly wrong to wean a baby simply because the stools are abnormal, if it is doing well in other ways. The breast-fed infant will often go weeks or months without a normal stool and yet thrive perfectly. On the other hand, if a baby has such stools when it is taking cow’s milk it is a decided evidence of malnutrition.
Infants that are thriving on cow’s milk have, as a general rule, fewer movements in the twenty-four hours than do breast-fed babies and these movements are firmer in consistency.
Constipation
Constipation seems to be the chief difficulty in artificial feeding, due usually to the poor absorption of fat, or the low percentage necessary to prevent indigestion. If the constipation is not severe, the substitution of oatmeal for barley water in the mixture will usually relieve the trouble.
If the constipation is severe, causing occasional attacks of colic or straining at stool, it is sometimes advisable to give a little higher percentage of fat in the mixture, but this should be done very cautiously and usually on the advice of the physician.
If, however, this does not relieve the trouble, the best plan is to substitute one of the dextrin-maltose mixtures for milk-sugar or cane-sugar. The malt itself is not especially laxative but it prevents the excessive fermentation which usually occurs when the bowels are very costive.
Diarrhea
Two, three, or more green and loose evacuations, even though they may contain whitish particles of undigested fat, are of no great significance in the breast-fed infant, but should be regarded as danger signals in bottle-fed babies.